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Toms River kids may have been 'pretend shooting' when one was shot in head with real rifle

6 year-old shot by 4 year-old in Toms RiverFamily, police and neighbors describe the event Monday evening where 6-year-old Brandon Holt was shot in the head by a 4-year-old neighbor while playing in their Toms River neighborhood.

TOMS RIVER — Ronald Holt, the father of a 6-year-old boy shot in the head by a 4-year-old neighbor in Toms River, said of his son’s condition “It’s not good at all,” when reached by phone this afternoon. When asked what happened, all he could say of son Brandon was, “He got shot.”

The incident took place around 6:30 p.m. yesterday outside a McCormick Drive home when the 4-year-old boy was “pretend shooting,” according to Danella Magiera, who lives near the house and is friends with the victim’s family. Moments later he went inside to get the rifle. When he came back outside with the .22 caliber gun, Magiera said, he fired once from 15 yards away, striking Brandon in the head. The older boy was sitting in a go-kart at the time, said Toms River Police Chief Michael Mastronardy at a press conference with Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph Coronato.

While the 6-year-old lies in critical condition at an area hospital, detectives continue their investigation, which included seizing a collection of guns from the 4-year-old's home, said another neighbor.

“I don’t even know how it happened,” said Daniel Watkins, the uncle of the victim, adding that the family was simply “trying to deal with it.”

Watkins added that the bullet went directly into the boy’s head and wasn’t a grazing injury.

The police responded to a 911 call at 6:43 p.m. at which time the gravely wounded boy was rushed to Jersey Shore University Medical Center and placed in the intensive care unit, Rob Cavanaugh, a hospital spokesman said.

Authorities said it was "too early" to know whether anyone would be charged in the case. Nor would they say who owned the gun.

Monday night, police took between 8 to 10 guns out of the house where the shooting occurred, said Debi Coto, a neighbor who lives across the street.

Neighbors and family on McCormick Drive, an upper-middle class neighborhood, are still in shock.

Coto said the 6-year-old is well known in the neighborhood as friendly and outgoing.